Wellington

Friday morning I drove from Wanganui to Wellington and, thankfully, avoided any further contact with NZ's finest. I dropped the car off and found my hostel in the heart of downtown Wellington. It was raining when I arrived, so I decided to go check out Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. It's a huge new museum that bills itself as more than just a museum because it has a lot of interactive and cultural exhibits. I spent a few hours wandering through the exhibits about the founding of NZ, the major cultural influences, natural history, and Maori culture. It was a good way to spend a rainy afternoon. I stopped at a restaurant called One Red Dog and had a nice dinner before returning to the hostel.

On Saturday, I set off to explore Wellington on foot. Wellington is ringed by hills and mountains and there are many houses built on the surrounding hills. I walked through some of these neighborhoods to reach Charles Plimmer Park and then began walking up the steep slopes of Mt Victoria. At the top of the mountain there is a fabulous lookout over the city. It was a beautiful sunny day and visibility was good, but it was incredibly windy. The wind would push me back and along and nearly had the power to push me over. In the harbor below I could the whitecaps on the water from the wind.

I left the summit and found a nice spot under a tree for a snack. I continued hiking in the park along the Southern Walkway, a trail the city set aside along the parks that make up the hilly ridgeline in the city. The walkway afforded me some excellent views of the city, the mountains in the distance, and the ocean. The walkway took me past a Lord of the Rings filming location. They filmed the scene in Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo told the hobbits to get off the road and then hid under the roots of the tree from the black riders. A small marker pointed out the spot. Further along the trail was the Truby King house and gardens. Truby was a wealthy philanthropist and his house and gardens atop a hill are beautiful. I walked until I reached the Wellington Zoo and saw a few baboons through the fence line. I turned around an hiked back through the Southern Walkway to the hostel. It was an exhausting hike, but well worth it. I spent Saturday night at the hostel watching movies.

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